Presenters 2019

Byron Ballard, BA, MFA, is a western NC native, teacher, folklorist and writer. She has served as a featured speaker and teacher at Sacred Space Conference, Summerland Spirit Festival, Pagan Spirit Gathering, Southeast Wise Women’s Herbal Conference, Glastonbury Goddess Conference, Heartland, Sirius Rising, Starwood, Scottish Pagan Federation Conference and other gatherings. She is senior priestess and co-founder of Mother Grove Goddess Temple and the Coalition of Earth Religions/CERES, both in Asheville, NC.

Her essays are featured in several anthologies and she writes a regular column for Witches and Pagans Magazine. Her book Staubs and Ditchwater debuted in 2012 and the companion volume Asfidity and Mad-Stones was published in Oct. 2015. Embracing Willendorf: A Witch’s Way of Loving Your Body to Health and Fitness launched in May, 2017. Earth Works: Ceremonies in Tower Time debuted in June 2018. Byron is currently at work on Gnarled Talisman: Old Wild Magics of the Motherland and The Ragged Wound: Salving the Soul of Appalachia.

John Beckett

John Beckett grew up in Tennessee with the woods right outside his back door. Wandering through them gave him a sense of connection to Nature and to a certain Forest God.

John is a Druid in the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids (OBOD), a member of Ár nDraíocht Féin (ADF), and a former Vice President of the Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans. His blog “Under the Ancient Oaks” is part of the Pagan Channel of the multifaith website Patheos. John has been writing, speaking, teaching, and leading public rituals since 2003. His book The Path of Paganism: An Experience-Based Guide to Modern Pagan Practice was published by Llewellyn in May 2017.

John lives in the Dallas – Fort Worth area and earns his keep as an engineer.

Andras Corban-Arthen

Andras Corban-Arthen is an elder and spiritual director of the EarthSpirit Community (founded 1977), and president of the European Congress of Ethnic Religions headquartered in Vilnius, Lithuania. He also serves on the Board of Trustees of the Parliament of the World’s Religions, and on the advisory board of the Ecospirituality Foundation, based in Torino, Italy. Andras has taught and lectured about pagan spirituality formore than forty years, both throughout the U.S. and abroad. He represented the pagan traditions at the United Nations Interfaith Conference on Religion and Prejudice in 1991, and has been a featured presenter at many national and international events, among them the Parliaments of the World’s Religions held in Chicago, Barcelona, Melbourne, Salt Lake City, and Toronto, the Encuentro Mundial Interreligioso in México, the Wisdom Keepers conference in Wales, and the Religions for the Earth conference in NYC. Originally from Galiza, Spain, he lives with his extended family in Glenwood, a 135-acre pagan sanctuary and nature preserve in the Berkshire Highlands of western Massachusetts.

2019 Other Fine Teachers

Aeptha

Aeptha is a teacher, ceremonialist and cosmic mediator who has been a practitioner in a variety of esoteric disciplines since the mid-1980s. In 1993 Light Haven, a contacted mystery school, was established by Aeptha and her partner Eushahn. Her work includes extensive training in the ritual arts, the Western Magickal traditions as well as the Earth Based traditions. Throughout the years she has taught at conferences including Between the Worlds, Sacred Space, PantheaCon and Paganicon. Aeptha has a Masters in Human Development and Learning and enjoys a very active counseling practice in addition to her responsibilities as a High Priestess.

Diane Awenyyd – Evans

Diane Awenydd-Evans is a Third Degree Initiate and High Priestess of the Weavers of the Moonfire, a Coven of the Assembly of the Sacred Wheel. She has been a student of the Welsh Gods and Their stories for 25 years and is devoted to defending, invoking and empowering the Divine Masculine as a healing presence in the World.

Amy Blackthorn

Amy Blackthorn began studying the magic of plants as a child, from hidden tomes in her local library. As early as high school, Amy attended a school of horticulture with a year of independent study into the nature of herbs. A listed professional with the National Association of Holistic Aromatherapy, Amy is also a graduate of Gryphon’s Grove School of Shamanism and is Gryphon Priestess of the Morrigan and Hecate. Five years ago, Amy opened a successful line of magical teas, Blackthorn Hoodoo Blends. Amy’s first book Blackthorn’s Botanical Magic, was released September 1st, 2018 by Weiser Books. BlackthornHoodooBlends.com

Chelidon

Chelidon is a devotee of the bardic arts, including the skills of word, rhythm, story and song. He believes that we each carry and live unique tales — and in sharing our stories through drum, voice, ritual, music, or other Arts, we connect with our timeless human birthright and inheritance, adding delicious richness to the Great Tale we create together. He lives in the woods of northern New England, is a co-founder of the World Tree Lyceum mystery school (http://worldtreelyceum.org), and has been teaching magic for more than twenty-five years, out of a deep and diverse chain of heritage, study and practices. More than anything else, he believes that the universe is quite literally made of love.

Hecate Demetersdatter

I’m a woman, a Witch, a mother, a grandmother, an eco-feminist, a lawyer, a gardener, a reader, a writer, and a priestess of the Great Mother Earth. Political magic has a long history and I am a proud practitioner. I believe that a Witch who cannot hex cannot heal. I have blogged about spiritual and political topics for many years at hecatedemeter.wordpress.com.

Jim Dickinson

Jim Dickinson is a 3rd Degree Initiate, High Priest, and founding member of Assembly of the Sacred Wheel. He has founded and led covens in the ASW since 1991, and is valued as a skilled ritualist, priest, counselor and leader. Working in helping professions for 35+ years, he has worked in the fields of HIV prevention, inmate re-entry, and is currently working in a program to reduce abuse and neglect for the Delaware Division of Developmental Disabilities Services. He has a BS in Behavioral Science and MS in Health Promotion. He lives in the woods of Delaware at Herne’s Hollow on Seelie Court with his beloved partners, Michael Smith & Andy Kiess, 2 cats, a school of fish, and a loving extended family.

Carm DiLullo

Carm DiLullo is a Third Degree Initiate of the Assembly of the Sacred Wheel, serving as High Priestess of Archers of the Sacred Flames. Carm has a deep love of nature and has studied plants and animals since childhood; her first steps on the path began in adolescence She is an Herbologist, Tarot reader, Fire Scryer and advocate for the practical application of Magick and balance in daily life. Carm, a Fire Priestess, keeps a bonfire pace as she teaches in the Pagan community, practices homesteading, and serves the Mother by her work at a wildlife rehabilitation clinic. In her professional life she is a teacher and has degrees and certifications in science, education, nutrition, and educational leadership.

Ivo Dominguez Jr.

Ivo Domínguez, Jr. has been active in Wicca and the Pagan community since 1978. He is an Elder of the Assembly of the Sacred Wheel, a Wiccan syncretic tradition, and is one of its founders. He is a part of the core group that started and manages the New Alexandrian Library. Ivo is the author of Keys To Perception, Practical Astrology for Witches and Pagans, Casting Sacred Space, Spirit Speak, Beneath the Skins, and numerous shorter works. Ivo is also a professional astrologer who has studied astrology since 1980 and has been offering consultations and readings since 1988. Ivo lives in Delaware in the woods of Seelie Court. www.ivodominguezjr.com

Raven Edgewalker

Raven is a queer British Witch, teacher, facilitator, artist and writer who dwells in the magical landscape of Somerset, UK. She has an ongoing, passionate love affair with the natural world. She see her work in the world as that of building connections, with self, with each other, within community, with deity and with all seen and unseen beings. Raven has spent many years learning from the land and listening to its voice, its beings, stories, gods and spirits. Though her work she hopes to guide others to open to deeper connections of their own. She is a collector of unconsidered trifles, an Ogham geek, Peacock devotee, and a tree-loving polytheist.

Eric Eldritch

Eric Eldritch is a Radical Faerie, Interfaith Minister and a Stone Circle Wicca priest who lives at the intersection of Sexuality and Spirituality. He is known as a Sacred Fool, a master of the profound and profane bringing depth and joy to an understanding of body, mind and soul. Eldritch is a community organizer who specializes in event planning, public relations and organizational development based on principles of group identity, sociolinguistics and cross-cultural relations. Drawing on years of experience in ceremonial and ecstatic forms of worship for ritual construction, he specializes in interfaith worship and spiritual retreat planning. He coordinates Center Faith in Washington, DC (LGBT Interfaith resources) and is a member of Circle Sanctuary in the Minister Training Program.

Sandra English

Sandy English has been a practicing Pagan for over 20 years. She trained in faery and priesthood traditions with RJ Stewart and Orion Foxwood. Sandy’s work was strongly influenced by a variety of talented teachers, including Ivo Dominguez, Jr. and T. Thorn Coyle. In 2008, Sandy began teaching a small group of students. In the year that followed, the ground was laid for the Silver Branch Priesthood. Through a strong practice in visionary work, Sandy began to understand the calling she was receiving from Hecate. This led to the initiation of Silver Branch: a priesthood of Hecate, on the Summer Solstice in 2009. Since then, the priesthood has grown, as has our understanding of our mission to re-enchant humanity.

Chris Farmer

Beginning with meditation, Chris Farmer has studied aspects of magic and ceremony from both eastern mysticism and western occultism for the last 35 years. Some of his studies have been Hermetic Kabbalah, energetic systems (Reiki Master Teacher and Seikem/Sekim), crystal use and their applications, and ritual design. Chris has been teaching and mentoring students for 30 years, and has been teaching Yang Style Tai Chi for almost 25 years. He graduated as a teacher of shamanism from Gryphons Grove School of Shamanism, and is an ordained Priest of Ganesh, Isis, and Apollo through the Order of the Golden Gryphon. He has studied shamanism and shamanic healing with a wide variety of teachers, and currently enjoys a thriving healing practice in Virginia. Find Chris at Chris24farmer@yahoo.com

Robin Fennelly

Robin Fennelly is a Third Degree Initiate within the Assembly of the Sacred Wheel Tradition and serves as High Priestess of the Coven of the Mystic Path within the ASW. Her spiritual journey spans four decades and is strongly rooted in both Eastern philosophy and the Western Magickal systems. Robin has been active in the pagan community for 20+ years teaching, writing, leading ritual and maintaining a rigorous teaching schedule. Her writings and books have been featured online and in print internationally. She has taught extensively throughout the Pagan community, including Sacred Space Conferences, Spring Magick, Free Spirit Gathering, Pagan Pride Events, Between the Worlds Interfaith Conferences, and more. Robin lives in Eastern PA and works in the field of public education. www.robinfennelly.com

Firesong

Firesong (Eshu Akoni) is a priestess and Pathway initiate at the Universal Temple of Spirits, a Global Spirits pantheistic trance possession temple. Called the “human iPod”, she is a versatile, operatic soprano, as well as a professional teacher, artist, herbalist, and experienced gardener. Firesong conducts The Voices of the Seasons Ensemble, Global Spirits services, and has been cast in several opera and recital productions. She has recorded several teaching CDs of traditional chants and is the author of Global Spirits: Philosophies and Practices.

Irene Glasse

Irene is the Chairperson of Frederick CUUPS, the Frederick, MD, based chapter of the Covenant of Unitarian Universalist Pagans. She is also a Yoga Teacher, Reiki Master and Musician (Kindred Crow) based in Western Maryland. Irene has been reading Tarot for 26 years and practicing Paganism for 23 years. She currently teaches weekly yoga classes, facilitates monthly Labyrinth walks, leads Pagan spirituality services through Frederick CUUPS and performs readings and healings.

Larry L. Gobel Jr.

Larry L Goble Jr is a Ziewer in Distelfink Sippschaft as well as Vice President. Larry is a Reiki Master Teach and the proprietor of A New Vibration Spiritual Shop in Blackwood, New Jersey.

Haeleron Kevin Hawke

Haeleron has been a practicing pagan since the mid 80’s, studying Shamanic drumming and journey work targeted toward inner child healing. In 2010, he began studying witchcraft. He is initiated in The Minoan Brotherhood, and is devoted to the Forge God. He studied with Solar Cross’ Morning Star Mystery School for two years in Elements and Psychic Skills work. He has been working with Hephaestus since 2010.

Monika Healing Coyote

My name is Monika Healing Coyote, and I am a shaman located in Columbia, MD. I have worked as a shaman for the public since 2010, and became a full-time shaman August 2014. For me, the term “shaman” is a job title, describing any healing that occurs in direct relationship with Spirits. My own relationships with spirits are informed by my personal culture & spirituality: Druidry. I work with many Indo-European cultures, and enjoy connecting clients with their Helping Spirits. I have worked in the field of mental health for almost 16 years, and enjoy helping others with the support & processing of different crises/trauma. I have extensive spiritual training, including my Master Level certification in Usui Reiki, Soul Retrieval training, and I am an alumna of Gryphons Grove School of Shamanism (2012). Many have asked about my personal relationship with Coyote, as he is not normally considered a Spirit within the culture of Druidry. He and I have worked together since my first shamanic journey (in 2002), and His main role in the Americas is to heal his people. With my training, and love of Tricksters, we work very well together! I work hard to combine both my psychology and spiritual training for my clients, and I love to support others in healing and joyful practices!

Michael Hughes

Michael M. Hughes is an eclectic magician, author, speaker, magical thinker, and activist. He is the creator of the internationally viral Spell to Bind Donald Trump and All Those Who Abet Him, the largest magical working in history. He speaks on politics, magic, pop culture, psychedelics, the paranormal, and tarot. His latest book, Magic for the Resistance: Rituals and Spells for Change (Llewellyn, 2018)

Literata Hurley

Literata is a Wiccan priestess and writer who leads Gryphon’s Moon coven in Columbus, Ohio. Her poetry, rituals, and nonfiction have appeared in works such as Mandragora, Unto Herself, and Anointed as well as multiple periodicals. Literata has presented workshops and led rituals at the Sacred Space conference, Fertile Ground Gathering, Michigan Pagan Festival, and other venues. www.worksofliterata.org

Michelle A. Jones

Michelle A. Jones is a Ziewern of Distelfink Sippschaft. She is a practicing Hex and continues training in and implementing traditional Deitsch herbalism, Blazenheilkunst. In her spare time, Michelle enjoys renovating her historic home and being a steward to her property, Oak Haven Farm.

Annie Lynsen

Annie Lynsen is a priestess (2nd degree) of the Assembly of the Sacred Wheel. She has written and led a yearlong course and ritual/pathworking series for the Assembly on the Qabala and the minor arcana of the Tarot. As a bisexual pagan, she employs a queer lens to break down limiting binaries in magickal theory and practice, and advocates for bi-, trans-, non-binary/genderqueer-, queer-, and asexual-visibility and inclusion. In her spare time, she performs with the Misbehavin’ Maidens, a musical group focused on sex-positivity, feminism, lifting up the experiences of people in the LGBTQA+ community, and nerdy fandom references.

Sara Mastros

Sara Mastros is a Witch for Hire in Pittsburgh, PA. While she writes, teaches, and works a wide variety of witchcraft from across the magical spectrum, she’s especially fond of the syncretic sorcery of the Eastern Mediterranean. Recently, she’s been working on a book of new translations of the Orphic Hymns. You can follow all her work at www.OrphicHymns.com

Laurel Mendes

Laurel Mendes has been practicing and teaching magic and spirit work grounded in ancient Germanic and Scandinavian myth for more than thirty years. She is a gifted poet, necromancer, singer, and seidhkona. She is currently documenting her years of soul work, and crafting it into workbook form, so others may take up the practice. Prior to her arrival in Baltimore, she also served her community as a resource for folklore and as a priestess whose work was dedicated to the Goddess Brigid. Laurel lives in Baltimore, Maryland with her loving husband and her so very spoiled cats.

Katrina Messenger

Katrina Messenger is a poet, priestess, warrior and witch. She is a full time Wiccan mystic and an ordained minister. In 1999 she inaugurated a magical working called Connect DC, to reconnect and heal the city of Washington, DC. In 2004 after retiring from her career as a researcher, Internet architect, and technologist, she opened Reflections Mystery School. Katrina has studied mythology, esoteric sciences, and human development for more than thirty years. Now as the elder of her religious order, she offers classes, rituals, spiritual direction, and mentorship to her many students, clients, and colleagues. She is the author of Elemental Psychology: Using Jungian Psychology and The Sacred Elements for Spiritual Development, Descent: A Journey for Women, and Dark Beauty.

Scott Mohnkern

Scott Mohnkern, author of A Year of Viking RitualandHanging From the Tree: Living With the Runes, has been a practicing heathen for over 20 years, and has been teaching for over 15. Scott loves to help people understand the heathen gods, and heathen philosophy. He has been teaching classes for over a decade, including three years at Sacred Space. He is currently working on his new book Ancient Values For a Modern Age as well as working closely with the Mid-Atlantic Spae team.

Leanne Pemburn

Leanne Pemburn is a 3rd Degree initiate of the Assembly of the Sacred Wheel, and high priestess of Keepers of the Holly Chalice. She tends to the beautiful land at Faerewood, and holds space for sanctuary.

Angela Raincatcher

Allegedly Pagan since 1986, Angela Raincatcher has been around the block several times. She is a portraitist for the gods, a herder of mystics, and [redacted]. She can often be found flinging paint and dancing in front of a canvas in her studio, singing backup for the founder of the Order of Elemental Mysteries, or arguing with her Ancestors and Papa Legba in the liquor store about whether to buy whiskey or rum. In a recurring, temporary loss of sanity, she has volunteered to coordinate a variety of public Pagan events in the DC area over the last 20 years. She often dreams of being an old woman with a bourbon in one hand and several well-oiled acolytes to carry her around. Then she wakes up.

Dave Rea

David “Tyr’s Dragon” grew up on a horse farm just outside Elk Neck State Park and spent most of his childhood wandering through the woods and exploring nature. The inherent balance of nature is what inspired him to seek out a spirituality that matched his observations of the wilderness. In 1996 he began exploring the Wiccan religion as a solitary practitioner. He is a 2nd degree priest in the Assembly of the Sacred Wheel and is currently the acting High Priest of Fellowship of the Ancient White Stag coven in the Silver Spring, MD area. David graduated from the inaugural class of Gryphons Grove School of Shamanism (located in Silver Spring, MD) in 2012. Dave has been a board member of the Sacred Space Foundation, a regional esoteric conference, for over 8 years. Dave’s extensive education in the sciences of math, physics, and animal husbandry continually inform and expand his innate spirituality. His experience leads him to no longer see a line between spirit and science; they are intertwined. Dave’s specialization in energy work and creation of sacred space is from combining numerous geometric and physical theories with energy/chi work. This work is useful during his shamanic work as the Guardian/Ward for Gryphons Grove. Dave also uses these skills when working on house clearings\warding.

Gwendolyn Reece

Gwendolyn Reece is a modern Witch, Philhellene, Theosophist, and Neoplatonist, Gwendolyn has been devoted to the Hellenic deities, especially Apollon and Athena, since roughly Mycenaean times. She serves Them within the nation’s capitol as a priestess of the Theophania Temple, including serving Apollon as mantis. She found and recognized a place for herself in contemporary Paganism in the mid-1980s and has called herself a Witch ever since. She is a priestess of the Assembly of the Sacred Wheel and is a graduate of Caroline Kenner’s shamanic apprenticeship program, Gryphons Grove School of Shamanism. She lectured extensively for the Theosophical Society for 16 years and held multiple leadership positions within the society. Gwendolyn is on the faculty of American University and has a strong academic background in religious studies. In addition to her work as a practitioner, she uses her academic position to conduct research on contemporary Paganism with the intention of furthering the scholarly discourse and providing useful information back to Pagan communities.

Robert L. Schreiwer

Robert L. Schreiwer is a founder of Urglaawe, a Ziewer in Distelfink Sippschaft, and a practicing Braucher and Hex. Through the Pennsylvania German Heathen Alliance for the Urglaawe, he has been conducting a project to gather oral lore from all regions of Deitsch settlement and currently working on other language and cultural advancement projects. He is the current Steer for the Troth, the Founder and Elder of The Troth’s In-Reach Heathen Prison Services program, Manager of Heathens Against Hate, and the Troth Steward for Pennsylvania. He presented at the Parliament of the World’s Religions in 2015 and 2018.

Ariel Sirocco

Ariel Sirocco is a Hermeticist following the Corpus Hermetica and related writings. He has an academic background in biology and 15 years with the American Museum of Natural History. He’s been a practicing occultist since 1983. He was initiated a Priest of the Minoan Temple in 1998 and The Temple of the Spiral Path in 2004. During this time, he realized that the scientific and the esoteric were two sides of a coin named “Ritual” and, thus, began his true calling: Hermetics. He joined the Masons becoming a Master Mason in 2008, a 32-Degree Mason in 2012, and a Worshipful Master in 2017. In 2015, Ariel was granted an encampment charter (from an international Solomonic-Hermetic Order) for “New Alexandria-NYC.”

Michael G. Smith

Michael has been practicing Wicca, Magick, and various esoteric disciplines since 1989 and became active in the Pagan community in 1993 when he joined the Assembly of the Sacred Wheel, a Wiccan organization in the Mid-Atlantic region, and serves as an Elder of the ASW. He is inspired by his studies of astrology, Qabalah, ritual, and the Fae. He lives in southern Delaware and is one of the stewards of Seelie Court, 100 acres of Pagan-owned land dedicated to the growth of the Pagan paths.

Victoria Hutt Young

Victoria Hutt Young is a Urglaawe Ziewern from the Distelfink Sippschaft. In addition to her Ziewerin duties for the Sippschaft, she is also a trained Death Midwife.